EightThirteen
by V. Cristina
Summary: For AkuRoku Day! Roxas and his friends are celebrating his eighteenth birthday at a local restaurant. He didn't except the note left on his receipt by a certain red-haired waiter. One-shot, Akuroku. Mentions of Soriku and Zemyx. Idea for a title, anyone?


Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts is (c) Square Enix (and Disney?).

Wow. I was worried I wouldn't get this done in time for AkuRoku Day. It's like, eleven oclock and I was kind of like 'onoes!' and yeah.

This idea came from the Writer's Digest site. Thingy. A writing prompt from there. It bloomed into this...thing.

I haven't ever written AkuRoku before...or decent shonen ai for that matter. So this may be horrible. You've been warned.

The AkuRoku is a tad microscopic. If you people actually _like_ this I may make a multichapter sequel if I can stick to it. Yeah, or something.

Enjoy?

* * *

The tiny arcade near the exit of the Twilight Mall was, although brightly colored and slightly childish-looking, one of the better places to hang out. Neon oranges and baby blues aside, it was home to some of the most violent fighting games and easy-to-win crane games in Twilight Town. Not to mention Roxas got free tokens (and thus, almost-free tickets) for working there. Which meant he got to spend his entire work day racking in some tickets to get the lava lamp he'd been eying for the past week as a birthday gift to himself. It was a nice lava lamp; it curved around in a circle-shape and had two tubes of 'lava' that would light up a bright, fiery red, according to the box it came in.

Sora, who had come in to pester Roxas for free tokens, thought the lava lamp looked like a doughnut. A shiny, containing-toxic-chemicals, glowing doughnut.

"But it's cool!" Sora insisted as Roxas frowned at him. "Lava lamps are neat, really! And…doughnuts are good! Want to get some doughnuts?" Roxas rolled his eyes with a smile, sliding the box containing his gift-to-himself into a bag to carry home.

"You can get a doughnut, Sora," he said. "I could go for some ice cream before going to meet everyone at that restaurant. But that's for later; I'm still working." Sora pouted, leaning forward onto the counter. "I don't get why you wanted to get a job and _work_ during summer _vacation_," he said, resting his chin in his hand. "Because," Roxas insisted, "unlike you, I don't have a rich Riku to pay for my college education."

Sora's indignant retorts fell on deaf ears as Roxas turned to help a girl who had set a small bucket of tickets on the counter.

About a week ago, Sora's friend Kairi had taken it upon herself to get together with Naminé to plan a surprise eighteenth birthday party for Roxas. Unfortunately for them, Sora couldn't keep his mouth shut and Roxas had found out early, which suited him just fine. The basic plan was to ambush him at his house and spring a bunch of presents on him, and then whisk him away to some restaurant he hadn't really heard of before for a big birthday dinner. When he asked about it, Kairi had refused to let him pay for anything he ordered. This _also_ suited Roxas just fine. Working at the arcade on weekends, although a lot of fun, didn't bring in the largest amount of money and he had yet to apply to the café down the street for a slightly more long-term job.

"Okay, so what time are you done?" Sora asked as the girl meandered away from the counter with a small bag of candy, a pinwheel, and some plastic bracelets. "It's like four o'clock!"

Roxas glanced at his watch. Three-thirty.

"Half an hour, Sora."

"That's forever from now!" he whined. Roxas rolled his eyes, swiping his unused tokens from the counter. "Here, go play some video games."

Sora, although still pouting and clearly impatient, took the coins and went off to play; video games are, after all, irresistible.

* * *

The ambush that Roxas had been expecting was late. Thirty-seven minutes late.

He and Sora had been playing some generic fighting game he didn't know he owned when Kairi and Naminé had 'snuck' into his house. 'Snuck' meaning, fiddled at the front door until they found the spare key Roxas's father had stashed in a dull-looking potted plant.

"Well, so much for that," Kairi said, plopping next to Sora on the couch. Naminé sat on the arm of the sofa, beside Roxas with a sketch pad resting on her lap.

"Happy birthday, Roxas," she said quietly, a gentle smile on her face. Roxas spared her a glance from his game with his own smile. "Thanks, Nami," he replied, before pulling a combo and knocking out Sora's character.

Sora then decided that Roxas had cheated and vowed never to play with him again, resulting in Kairi dubbing him a sore loser.

"Hey, Roxas," Kairi started, "Did you want anything special for your birthday?" Sora and Naminé glanced towards him expectantly. He only shrugged in reply. "Nothing really, I guess…. You guys didn't have to get me anything, you know."

"Sure we did!" Kairi shot back. "I know what you'd really want though," she said, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. "A nice boyfriend, right?" Roxas, flushing violently, glared at her as Sora broke out into laughter. "Shut up, Kairi," he muttered, crossing his arms and sinking back into the cushiony embrace of the sofa.

Roxas had come to terms with his sexual orientation in his sophomore year of high school and, luckily, his friends had been accepting. Then again, Roxas wasn't alone. Sora and Demyx, the two more lovable guys of their strange little group, were also homosexual and dating Riku and Zexion, respectively; polar opposites of their own personalities, no less. Unlike Sora and Demyx, however, Roxas had no significant other.

A fact which Kairi teased him about. Relentlessly.

Luckily for Roxas, the door bell chose that moment to ring.

"That must be Hayner and everyone!" Kairi said with a grin as Roxas got up to answer the door, the red fading from his cheeks. And, as usual, Kairi was right. Hayner, flanked by Pence and Olette, stood in the doorway, a broad grin on his face.

"Hey, the birthday boy!" he cheered. "You're finally old enough to buy porn, huh?" Olette, with a roll of her eyes, smacked him upside the head.

"Happy birthday, Roxas," she greeted, holding out a dark blue gift bag. Roxas smiled lightly, gratefully accepting the present. "Thanks," he said, also taking the gifts presented by Pence and Hayner.

"I thought we were going to surprise you?" Pence asked, stepping inside, following Olette and Hayner. "You were going to," Roxas said, smirking as he lead his friends into the living room, "but Miss Mastermind was late."

"It wasn't my fault!" Kairi exclaimed with a pout. "There was traffic." Naminé and Roxas exchanged glances and Naminé slowly shook her head with a smile. Hayner chose that moment to notice the game system set up on the floor. With a big grin, he scooped up the controller and took a seat between Naminé and Sora on the couch. "Who wants to play?" he asked, the game already starting up. Pence took up the second player controller as the doorbell rang.

As Roxas turned to answer it, he idly wondered _why_ exactly, video games were irresistible.

* * *

It had been almost five o'clock before all of the guests had arrived. Following Hayner, Pence, and Olette's arrival, Demyx, Zexion, Riku, Tidus, Selphie and Wakka had appeared. Tidus, who had hitched a ride with Wakka, then had to make Wakka bring him home because he had forgotten Roxas's present. Wakka had hit him over the head with the ball-shaped present he had kept tucked under his arm; no doubt a Blitz Ball.

Olette's gift had been a CD, as was Hayner's. Pence had gotten him a gift certificate to his favorite clothing store, which was also the only clothing store he'd ever set foot in. Kairi, after finally remembering to pull her gift from her car, had gotten him a photo album; the first page was blank, but the second already held a picture of their entire circle of friends. Kairi had explained that the first page was reserved for a picture of Roxas and the boyfriend he'd eventually get. Naminé had splurged on a camera, Sora had gotten him a video game, Riku, another gift certificate, and Demyx and Zexion had pooled their resources to get him an mp3 player.

After "thank you's" and hugs had been shared in abundance, they finally made their way to the restaurant, an out-of-the-way place Kairi and Naminé were rather familiar with. Roxas couldn't even manage find the name of the place as they walked in.

He did find their waiter to be, dare he say, drop dead _gorgeous_.

He was very tall, dressed in a typical waiter get-up. His bright red hair was spiked back, wild but still smooth in it's own way; his eyes almost glowed a piercing, playful green. Roxas didn't notice he was staring until a smirk crept onto the redhead's face.

He promptly averted his gaze to the floor.

"You're the guys with the reservation, right?" the waiter asked, still smirking at Roxas. "Yep!" Kairi said, smiling cheerfully. "Alright, name's Axel, got it memorized? I'll be taking care of you tonight," he replied with a wink. "Table's right this way."

Roxas stubbornly refused to look up as he followed his friends' feet to their way-too-long dining table in the back of the restaurant. His gaze didn't rise until Axel had laid down the menus and walked off.

He felt an elbow lightly dig into his side. Naminé's concerned blue eyes met his.

"Are you okay, Roxas?" she asked quietly. Roxas smiled at her before reaching over to steal Sora's menu. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Roxas's birthday dinner went by fairly smoothly, with Roxas avoiding looking at Axel and all. That is, until Demyx got bored and started flicking bits of corn into Tidus's face. Tidus then started throwing croutons, which missed Demyx, but landed themselves in Zexion's hair. The glare that flew from Zexion's visible eye shook Tidus into seeking refuge in the bathroom for a while.

Hayner and Demyx were making plans to frame Tidus to make him deserving of Zexion's wrath in the near future.

Any awkwardness Roxas felt had evaporated by the end of the night; mostly because he hadn't seen Axel since he had taken their orders and delivered their food. At least, he hadn't until it was time to get the bill.

Axel sauntered up to their table, that cocky smirk on his face. He leaned forward, over Roxas's shoulder and, almost delicately, set the small tray holding the receipt in front of the now flustered blonde.

Roxas, upon spying the so-called 'receipt,' felt his face flare up in a blush.

'_5882587658. btw blondie, that's not your total. --axel' _

If Kairi saw this, he'd never live it down.

He found himself saving the receipt anyway.

Fun Fact: Axel's number (in txt-speak) says LuvAkuRoku. I'm ever so creative. Not.


End file.
